Loading system



1,578,024 R. P. GREENLEAF LOADING SYSTEM Filed March 12, 1924 5Smets-smet` 1 March 23 1926.

March 23,1926. 1,518,024

R. P. GREENLEAF LOADING SYSTEM Filed March 12, 1924 5 sheets-sheet 2March 23 1926. 1,578,024

R. P. GYREENLEAF LOADING SYSTEM Filed March 12, 1924 5 Sheets-Sheet 5`March 23 1926.

R. P. GR'EENLEAF LOADING SYSTEM Filed March 12, 1924 5 sheets-sheet 4,lverzfol Mar'ch 23 A, 192s. 1,578,024

R. P. GREENLEAF LOADING SYSTEM Filed March 12, 1924 5 Sheets-Sheet 5gaat?" .v

Patented Mar. 23, 1926.

EoBEn'r P. GREENLEAF, or

SHAKER iiEIeHrs, omo, AssIeNon ro raam: BILLINGs, oF CLEVELAND, oHIo. 1

LOADING SYSTEM.

Appliction led March 12. 1 924. Serial No. 698,632.

To all whom t may concern.: v

Be it known that I, ROBERT P. GREEN- LEAF, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Shaker Heights, 'in the county of Cuyahoga and Stateof Ohio, have invented a. certain new and useful Improvement in LoadingSystems, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to a car loading l system and isanimprovementover the subject matter'of an application', Serial No. 621,999, filedMarch 1, 1923, in the name of Frank Billings and myself; also thesub]ect matter of my application, Serial No. 688,67 8, l5 filed January26, 1924. l The loading systems disclosed in both said applications arefor the purpose of loading 'aseries of 'cars from a loadin machine, andinvolves the use ofva'skip esigned to l0 receive the material -from theloading machine, and arranged to travelover supporting rails provided onthe tops ofthe cars to be filled. In both the applications referred to,the rails which' are adapted to support and guide the' skiparevcontinuous in the sense .that they brid e the gaps between the cars,though the rai inv both instances' so formed that they will accommodatethemselves to curves of the tracks such as mine tracks over which thecars. are "adapted to bemoved, and permit. the loading of the cars eventhough they are positioned on a curve of the track. s

The principal object of the present 1nvention is to do away with thenecessity `of continuous rails or of rail sections between. the cars,and at the same time to avoid lial bility of the skip dropping. into theY ap between any twol cars, and to provi e also,

` means for not only avoiding derailment of the skip in the event thecars are located on acurve of thetrack, but to properly guide anddeflect the skip from one car to another, lwith the cars arranged at anangle as they may be when standin on a curve.

,50A scribed in the specification and s et forth in e accompanyingsheets of drawings the invention,- Fi y1 isa side elevation of 'twoCars-Qt @series also l'the sklp andthe s' or skip trackway are` Theinvention may e further briefly sum-v .l

wherein I have shown two'embodiments lofpower unitY adapted to supportthe skip when in loading position and to move the A same back and forthover the cars; Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the skip and a portion ofthe supporting rail showingthe body extended for dumping the skip into acar; Fig. 3 is a detail of a stop adapted to be clamped to a car at thedumping point to trip a latch and thereby release the body portion andbase of the skip; Fig. 4 is a top plan view of a series of cars providedwith skip railsformed in accordance with one. formof theinventionshowing part of the-cars arranged on a curve, and illustratinwhich the skip rails individual to the difthe manner in ferent cars arerelatively arranged when the cars are on curved yas well as straightportions of a track; 5 Vis a-front end view bf the skip; Fig. 6 is aviewof the opposite end of the skip vwith the skip supported onv one of thecars which is in vertical section;

Fig.' 7 is a bottom view'of the skip showing particularly the rollersemployed. with a car trackway of the form shown in the precedingfigures; Figs. 8, 9 and 10-are plan views, somewhatl diagrammatic,illustrating lhow the skip passes from one car to another; bot-hwhen-the `cars are on a curve (Figs. 8 and 9) and when on a straight'track (Fig. 10) Y 85 Fig. 11 is a top plan view; Fig. 12 is a sideelevation showing'the. power unit' and 'one car with the reversearrangement of rollers and tracks vtothat' illustrated in the preced ingviews, this modification Vshowing the power unit and cars' provided withsupporting and guiding rollers and" the skip with the equivalent ofrails adapted yto engage and travel over these rollers; and /Figy 13 isan end view on an enlarged scaleshowing the .skip of Figs. 11 and 12 andtheupper part of the carin section.

Any suitable loading machine may 'be utilized to fill the-skip, and thecars ,to be filled maybe located either to the rear or at one side oftheloading machine.

adapted tobev cou led together and conveyed doo; TheV loading systemincludes a skip 10 adapted tov travel over a series of cars .11

to andfrom the' oading point by a locomotive or other suitable means. Inthe drawits ings I have illustrated typical mine cars, las

,the invention is particularly adapted for mine fuse, though notconfined thereto.

As in my prior application have here ilhistratedal sto-calle power unlt1201?. which .0? are curved' inwardly'. as shown 11;202' lt` the skip issupported while being loaded, this power unit being provided with motoror 'engine driven drums 13 and 14 for the tail rope used to retract theempty skip,

and for the main rope 16 for moving the loaded skip back over the cars.The rope 'sys-tem for shifting the skip is substantially the same asthat illustrated in the Billings and LGreenleaf application, Serial lNo. 621,999, and need not therefore be described in detail, it beingunderstood thatvthe cars are provided at the top with pulleys or sheaves17, which guide the ropes when the' cars are going about or positionedon a curve.

Some of the' details of theskip, however,

- will be pointed out presently, andI will later Adescribe the manner inwhich the skip is dumped, though the method of dumping is similar tothat shown in application, Serial As already stated, in accordance withthe present invention the trackway or supporting devices provided at thetops of the cars arev individual to the different cars and areunconnected between the cars; that is to say,

a continuous trackways are eliminated, this being particularly usefulasv it admits of the dumping of the cars in any suitable fashion and inany of the ways for which the cars are by their construction adapted.

In accordance with the preferred form of the invention, the cars and thepower unit are provided withv rails to accommodate the skip, and thelatter is provided with rollers adapted to run over these rails, andwith other rollers adapted by engagement with the rails lto guide the'skip along the cars when the latter are on a straight track and todeiiect the skip when the cars are on a curve, andl this embodiment ofthe invention is illustrated in Figs. 1 to 10. In this embodiment theinclined skip tracks on the angles, with the skip adapted to engageuppower unit are indicated at 1'8, andthe skip tracks on the cars 11 areindicated at 19. These tracks are Apreferably formed byA standingflanges of the angles, which `flanges may be reinforced at the top byreinforcing strips'such as shown at 20 in Fig. 6. It is a feature of thepresent invention that the power unit, or beyond thev endslof the carsA'tance that they project beyond the cars and stated, and haveillustrated in isets of rollers.

Will be seen, particularly by reference to the tw'o rearmost cars ofFig. 4, that when y the cars are in alignment, lthe inwardly curvedrails on one car are close to the corresponding ends of the rails of theadjoin- I'0 ing car, the distance between the rail ends beingconsiderably less than the distance between the car ends, and it will beobserved also, that these inwardly curved ends of the rails do notinterfere with the arrangement of the cars at a decided angle withrespect to each other when the cars are on a curve. It may be herestated, that the design of the rail ends in regard to the distheircurvatures wi l be such as to admit of vthe passage of the tran of carsaround a curve of the shortest radius of any particu'- lar track system.

Not only do the rail ends `at each end of each car curve inwardly towardeach other, but they preferably also are inclined or tapered downwardlytoward their free ends, as 'illustrated in Figs. 1 and 6. This downwardinclination is provided to enable the skip to pass from one car toanother notwithstanding slight inequalities in the leve1 or height ofthe skip track rails on the different cars, which inequalities might bedue to variationsin the level of the track over which the cars are run,or to variations in the height at which the car bodies are supported bythe running gear of the' cars.

To co-operate with ski track rails such j as described, the under si eof the skip 10 is 100 providedV with a series of broad faced wheels orrollers 21 which engage or travel over the skip tracks. The faces ofthese rollers are -suticien'tly long that they will engage, andtherefore support the skip while travel- 105 ing over the inwardlycurved ends of the rails as well as the straight portions thereof, and asufficient number of these rollers 21 is provided so that the skip willbe adequately supported when'passing from'the 110 rails of one car tothe rails of the other, whether the cars are in alignment or at an angleto each other, thereby avoiding liability of the skip dropping inbetween the cars. This is apparent from Figs. 8, 9 and 10. I 115. preferto use more than, two sets of the rollers 21 to accomplish theresultjust Fig. 7 four Additionally'the skip is provided with a 120 pluralityof sets of vertically disposed rollers 22, which project downward on theouter sides of the skip rails, thev function of these rollersY being toguide the skip along the skip rails so as to prevent and also to deflectthe ski as the skip passes from one car to anot er when they areangularly disposed and not in alignment. This deflection of the skip,and therefore its change of position and direc- 130 its derailment, I

and the skip figures,

' tinuous,

one car to by the head and tail ropes from the other over the gapsbetween the cars, regardless of whether the cars are in alignment, aswhen on a straight track or are 'at angles with respect to each other,

operated as when on 'a curvedtrackj It might bey stated also, that thefriction -due to the en; gagement of the l guidingI and deflecting.rollers with. theiskip rails is not excessive can be pulled along overthe cars readily2 regardless of how they are relatively positloned. I

The same results as explained above canv be obtained lby reversing thearrangement of the rollers and rails as illustrated in Figs. 11,l 12land 13. As shown in these the power unit and ears are' provided withhorizontally disposed supporting rollers 23 and 24, the formerbeing'short faced rollers mounted on studs on horizontal roller supportsprovided along the upper side edges ofthe cars and power unit.

'A ranged at the end of the power unit and l faces of whicliride overthe rollers 24 and the sides of which engagerollers 25 and 26, theseshoes being-on the innerfside vof rollers 25 `while vthe" rollers 26.are posi;-A tioned inside the shoes, as shown'in Fig. 13'.vv

at'the ends of the cars, these rollers pro- 'jecting-bevond the ends ofthe lpower unit and cars and being 4in'clined as illustrated, so asto'decrease ythe gap to be bridged'by the rails 'or shoes on 'the skip,land vat the same time to allowI the cars to accommodate themselves to`track curves.

vertical guiding and deiiectingrollersv 25, .and at the ends they areprovided with'vertical defiecting vrollers`26 set in towardA the l larpoint in its( travel is determined by a center line of the power unitandcars.

With this arrangement the skip is vpro- .videdat the bottom with shoes27, they lwe A'The shoes 2 7 are ta-peredat their ends, as

'illustrated'in Fig,v 13, and at their-eiidsthe the tapered. ends bottomfaces arecurved upwardly, as 'shownAl in Figs. 12 and 13. vBy theengagement ot f l the `cars are ona curvepreciselv as with the f unit'and are arrangement first described, an by faced .rollers whichprointerfere withthe swinging movement of the cars .when they round aj'curve, thee'sklp 'be properly of the the skip will pass readily whenheld and latched-over the base of the ski suehthat the bo y portion maytravel back .The rollers 24 are' long faced rollers which are ar-l.Additionally 'the power unit and cars are provided with any of thecars.

gaged vb ,.snow. -hel eeontinued 'pull Qnthe head or ymain rope cartoanother, lwhether the cars arein alignment or at an angle to oneanother.

As already stated, the skip is operated, i. e.T moved back and forthover the cars and dumped substantially as in the application, Serial No.621,999. `but the structure of the skip has been modified somewhat, andthis will now be described.

The skip is providedwith a base 28, carrying the rollers "21 andv 22 ofthe construction first described, or the shoes 27- of the modification.Likewise, it includes a body portion 2 9 capable of moving over'oralongthe base, as illustrated in Fig. 2, to dump the skip, thebody portionbeing normally base by a -pivoted latch 30 which is normally hooked overthev rear end 31 of the base. This lat-ch, which is located at thecenter of the forward end 'l of the'body portion of theskip, is-carriedby a rockshaft 32, having at its outer end (see Fig. 5) an offset pin32".

-At the sides of the body portionof the skip are wheels 33 which engagehorizontal rails 311i arranged along the sides ofthe the arrangementbeing over lthe base when' the latch 30 is vdisen- The head rope `16 isattached to an anchorage body portion ofthe skip, as shown in-Fig. 2,and from this point it passes 'back to the I.rear end of the rearmostcar around a sheave 36,1md then forwardly to the drum 14. The tail rope'age member 37 (see' Fig. 2) ,on the base of the skip, and then passesaround a lsheave 38 'at the rear end of the body portion of the` skip(see Fig; 2) and then extends to the tail rope drum 13.*

-The dumping of theskip at anyparticuf stop 39, adapted to be clamped atany vdesired point, to oneI of= the skip rails 19 on v\Vhen the skip istraveling` rearwardly this stop 39 is .adapted to beencarried isnormally lretracted or held in: its rear- Awifrrdmost posit-ioni' by aspring 41. When the rearward' down-turned end of this bar 'of the shoeswith `the vertical rollers,the skip willtbe defie'cte'd when stopf.39,wherever it may-be engages the bar i s pushed forwardly positioned, the

along-f .thfbs'eof 'the skip, and. its tapered fcryardaendfengagesunder.. the offset pin f .th'eglatch supporting rock-shaft 32, Qlsfthislshftso asto 'shift the latch 'tof-rel stationaryby the stop 39, but

supported in passing from one member at the rear end of the- 15isfastenedv to an anchorai latchreleasing rodor slide 40 the base partof the skip.` This bar which isv supported for sliding movement alongone side' of the base 'of the skip easing;positionf The base of theskip'v 16 slides the body. portion 'of the skip rearwardly beyond the base so'as to dump the contents of the skip into the car to which the stop 394was applied.

When the 'drums 13 and 14 of the power unit are reversed so as to'windin on the tail rope and pay out the head rope, the body portion of theskip first slides forwardly to normal position ont/the base and becomeslatchedv thereto. Thereupon .the skip is hauled back and comes to a stopon the inclined rails of the power unit. When in this position it isloaded by the loading machine and the operation is repeated.

V While I have shown two forms of my invention, I do not desire to beconfined to the exact details shown, but aim in my claims to cover allmodifications which do not involve a departure from thespirit and scopeof my invention as defined in the appended claims.

Having described myv invention, I claim:

1. In a loading system, a series of cars, and a skip adapted to travelover the cars, the cars having skip supporting members individual tothedifferent cars and arranged to permit the cars to swingv relatively inpassing a curve and to permit a skip to pass from car to car while saidcars are on a. curve. 1

2. In a loading system, a series ofcars to be filled, and a skip adaptedto travel over the cars and to dump its contents therein, vthe carsbeing' provided with skip support'- ing members which are unconnectedbetween the cars and which project beyond the ends of the cars so as toreduce the .gap to be bridged by the skip, the projecting portions acurve of the track. U3.. In a loading system, a 'series of cars adaptedto be filled, and a skip! for filling permitting the cars to .swingrelatively on` the same vadapted to travelfover the tops of the cars,the skip and cars having co-operating supporting and guiding members,the'- memberson the' cars being individual theretoand unconnectedtherebetween and arranged to deflect the skip when the latter is passingbetween carsarranged at an angle to each other.

4;,In a loading system, a series ofrcars, and a loading skip adapted totravel over the same,'the cars -beingprovided with, skip supportingmembers, said members being inclined inwardly at the ends of thejcars.

5. In a loading` system, a seriesof cars, and a 'loading skip adapted totravel over the same, the cars being provided with skip supportingmembers, said lmembers projecting beyond the ends of the cars, jectingportions being inwardly inclined.

6. In a loading machine, a series of cars to be filled, and a skip forfilling the same adapted to travel over the tops of the cars, the carsbeing provided with skip supporting rails which-are unconnected betweenthe cars and which project beyond the ends of the cars and are inclinedinwardly.

7; In a loading machine, a series of cars to be filled, and a -skip forfilling the same adapted to travel over the tops of the cars, the carsbeing provided with skip supporting rails unconnected between cars andthe skip having Wheels .0r rollers adapted to engage the same, saidrails having portions for deflectingthe skip in passing between carswith the latter arranged at an 4angle with respect to each other.

8. In a loading machine, a series of cars to be filled, and a skip forfilling the same' adapted to travel over the tops of the cars, the carsbeing provided with skip supporting rails curved inwardly at their endsand the pro-` the cars being provided with skip supporting rails curvedinwardly and tapered downwardly aat their ends.

10. InL a loading system, a series of cars provided vwith skipsupporting rails with portions along the-sides of the cars and other.portions adjacent the ends of the cars forming relatively close skipsupports, and askip adapted totravel over the rails and of sufiicientlength to engage the relatively close as well as therelatively widelyspaced portionsA of the rails.

11. A loading system comprising a plurality of cars having skipsupporting rails with main portions along the sides of the cars and withrelatively close portions projecting beyond the ends of.. the cars, anda skip adapted to traveloventh'e rails and adaptedto engage both saidportions ofthe rails.

myl signature.l f.

l ROBERT P. GREENLEAF. l

n testimony whereof, I hereunto affix i

